After much ado, Suzuki has confirmed that they have signed Alvaro Bautista for next year’s MotoGP season. Bautista had been pursued rather intently this last month by his old 250GP boss, Jorge “Aspar” Martinez (pictured above), for his satellite Ducati team, which will be debuting next season. However, Bautista has been resistant to the idea of riding the Desmosedici, and was looking for a factory ride, which only Suzuki can provide.

Bautista will ride for Suzuki under a two-year contract, which was announced at Brno this weekend. Alongside Bautista is likely to be Loris Capirossi, who is rumored to be close to signing a one-year deal with Suzuki.

This then also means that Christopher Vermeulen is on his way out of the Rizla garage. But never fear, the Gilligan Island hat wearing rider does have some offers in the works, namely one from Tech3 Yamaha. Despite being the satellite team in the paddock that everyone wants to be on, Tech3 isn’t offering Vermeulen much in the way of compensation, which makes their interest seem slightly insincere.

However, rumor puts a few other teams vying for a shot at Vermeulen riding for free, and are willing to cough up some money for the talented former WSBK rider.